Criminal Encounters
by Syphira
Summary: Children shouldn't be allowed in Kerning City in the first place. It's just the unlucky ones that do. OCs; OCs everywhere


**I haven't written anything in forever; I'm sorry ;A;.**

**I've been wanting to write this idea for years now - mostly because my friend Michael and I roleplayed it out just a tad when I was about 8 or 9, ahaha!**

**Anyway, my writing's kind of poor as of recent but pleeeease bear with me ;u;.**

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Kerning City was _not _the best place to be in this day and age, specifically with the chaotic atmosphere that was affecting every living thing it could. Houses were frequently demolished because of low funding, civilians were often assaulted by raging thieves, and the economy in_ general _was not booming like it should have around eight years ago. The crime rate – as well as its death rate – did not hesitate to rise when more thieves had begun to show their faces to the world, and several thieves that were working alone were now forming groups to attempt a takeover of the entire area. There were a few brave people that wanted to move into the swampy areas, but it had not even been a week before they had sabotaged the housing in that area as well. At the rate the heists were going the whole area would have to be evacuated in order for several different thieves to disperse and be taken care of.

In the midst of this craze stood a female dashing behind several different buildings with nothing but a fruit knife and an apple in her hand. Her clothes were fairly ragged – mostly from different types of cuts and scratches that most likely occurred around her. She wore shorts that went above her knees just a tad, and the female was tripping over her shoelaces that were prone to untying themselves when she wasn't looking. Her hair was being held by a headband that was originally petit, but with much dirt and grime that had made its home on top of it the cuter aspects had disappeared from it. In fact, most of the 'cute' that could've described a child like her for the moment was being sapped away by fear. A fear, in which, most Kerning folk would have in this day and age.

…The fear of being _**slaughtered**_.

The little girl desperately attempted to pick up the pace – falling onto her knees before doing her best to stand back up and start running again. She could hear fleeting footsteps come up from behind her and ran into an alleyway that was a bit too narrow for her, but easy to hide around for the moment. She could _feel _her heart violently thumping against the walls of bones that protected her organs, and her legs were wobbling out of exhaustion. When she slid against the wall her apple and knife had slid to the ground as well, but she had no time to worry about that. For now, she had to stay as quiet as possible to make sure she was in a safe area.

Ever since her encounter with two boys that have lived in Kerning for quite some time, her life was now a living hell. Their harassment against her for mere mesos scared her from the start, and when she had refused to give them her money it was then that the chase had started. With throwing stars nearly hitting her from behind and a dagger or two nearly jabbing her in the back, it wasn't surprising to see that she was trying to get away as quick as possible. She averted her eyes to the direction she ran from and immediately ducked in order to avoid an incoming shuriken aimed toward her head. She nearly cried out when it hit the wall, but made sure to keep quiet in an attempt to trick them.

"Dratini~? Won't you come out now?" One of the males requested in a sing-song voice that was too eerie to be trustworthy, "We know you're in there, so why don't you give up the chase and just hand us the money?"

"Yeah, or we'll rip ya' a new one!" The other male spat – tossing another shuriken into the pathway before letting out a laugh filled with malice.

The female named Dratini was tempted to respond, but stopped short at the second weapon. She took her time standing up and grabbing her necessities. Placing her beloved knife back into her pocket she held the apple close to her and made sure to feel the back pocket of her shorts for the pouch of money that she kept around her to feed herself. If they were to take it away from her she would have to find other means to obtain food and water, which bothered her to no end the more she thought about it. When she tried to walk, her legs tensed up and a bruise on the back of her right one immobilized her just a tad. She held her balance by using the walls and began to walk further into the opposite direction of their voices. Maybe if she had gone a roundabout way, she could run to the Six Path Crossway and make it out of Kerning City without dying like many other children have so far. With this chance in mind she continued to wobble forward with fire in her azure eyes – noticing that the voices were becoming much more muffled and far away the more she walked. She couldn't help feeling victorious at this moment.

Right when she moved to the end her victory was soon followed by a failure. Gloved hands pulled her tiny wrists into a lock that merely imitated being arrested by the police. The rough treatment made her cry out in horror and drop her items once more, but those were easily silenced by the blade at the neck. Her widened eyes moved to note the boy with the shuriken – wavy red hair covered by a bandana and a hat to boot. The eyes as dark as a full moon were clearly eager to see the reactions of Dratini being caught. And it was sad to say that Dratini was giving him all the types of responses that he wanted.

"L-let me go!" Dratini winced – blue locks falling in front of her face after they had knocked off her headband. "I can't give you any money! What little I have left is _mine_!"

"And that's why brats like _you _were killed," The boy wielding the dagger tossed her down to the floor – placing the weapon once more at her face just to scare her. He had knelt over her to assert his stance on the situation and made sure that she could not escape – even if she were capable of wiggling around a bit. "You lot are so selfish… We aren't asking you for your food or anything, but you still insist on refusing our request."

"It's not a request if you're doing this…" She whined, "This is a threat; I-I thought thieves were supposed to protect Kerning, not _rob _from it..!"

"We aren't called thieves for nothing." He chuckled, sliding his hand to her back pocket to rummage out the sack of mesos that she was protecting for quite some time, "See? That wasn't too bad, was it? You're too self-righteous. I hate kids like you."

"Yee'. And just for denyin' us all that time, I'm gonna kill ya'!" The claw wielding thief moved closer to her – stepping on her hair so she couldn't look up to see, "Now, just stand still…"

When asked to do so, Dratini could feel her body quiver in fear. Tears were merely blurring out the last few moments of eyesight as they pooled, and her body had given up in fighting. She felt extremely tired and began to question herself as she heard more talking from above. Were these the thoughts of the deceased? Were all the civilians that were murdered this way thinking the same exact thing? Were there _others _currently being slaughtered for the moment? She cried out within her impending doom as they were marking her cheek with the dagger and fruit knife. It was obvious that she was going to lose this battle now.

But before she could close her eyes and accept this fact she had heard screaming coming from the men above her.

"What the _hell_?!" The other thief cried out, backing away from Dratini as quick as he could. It was obvious that his blade had been knocked out of his hand by a throwing _knife_. A few more flew towards their direction, but had hit the redhead instead of his friend. "Who's there?!"

"_I find it a bit rude that you are attacking a girl that is not even the age of ten yet,_" came one voice from a different direction.

"_I highly doubt they give two shits about what they've done at this point,_" said the other – who sounded a bit older than the latter. "_Point is their actions are pissing me off…_"

Dratini's head perked up a bit when she heard the other males step away from her and walk towards the voices up front. Wiping the tears away from her eyes she moved enough to pull her body to all fours and balance with little pain. Though blood was running down the side of her face, it was clear that she was too distracted by the new people to care about it for the moment.

One of the boys had walked up to the claw-wielder – his blue hair tied up in a ponytail and his bangs covering some of his face. The boy _behind _him had an identical hairstyle – with eye colors that contrasted between the lookalikes. The male upfront held his dagger in the air with a fist clenched – showing that he was ready for a quick fight if need be. The male from behind was toying with his hair just a slight – though in his free hand he was holding three other throwing knives that looked like they had been sharpened before they got there. He walked towards them and stood beside his twin of sorts – heaving a small sigh with a tiny smile marking his lips.

"What's so funny?" One of the males replied, "You think a few knives are going to scare us? You _must _be joking..."

"And _you _must be joking to use your powers as a thief to your sick advantages," In a flash the male disappeared and reappeared behind the male with not one, but _two _daggers at the neck. When this black-haired male of sorts tried to reach for his own, he had realized that the blue boy took it from him during his disappearance. "People like you shouldn't even be _spared _by the Dark Lord."

"We're giving you one warning," the other blue-haired boy tossed a star at the redhead's feet, "Leave, and we'll spare you."

"Trust me, I don't hesitate on these types of things," The daggers moved closer to the neck, "I could easily decapitate you, but I wouldn't want to scare the kid. What'll it be?"

The two that had been chasing Dratini were obviously scared out of their wits. They could've provoked the boy further with a few teases, but it seemed like they were more concerned about being killed here and now than sparing a few jokes to anger them. It was until the one held captive started trembling that Embergoose had released his grip and shoved him into his partner-in-crime – a glare being thrown their direction.

"Get out of here. I don't _ever _want to see you two in Kerning again." He commanded – watching the boys not even bother going back for their stars or weapons in order to abscond as quick as they possibly could. Something told Dratini that they were never coming back.

When Dratini noticed the boy holding the stars walk up to her she merely yelped and fell back down again – holding onto her leg as if she were signaling how much pain she were in. She began to shiver once she felt the male touch her shoulder in reassurance.

"Are you alright? That must have been some scare…" To Dratini, his initial demeanor was definitely terrifying. However, for the moment, he wasn't angry at all. If anything his eyes had softened and his hands were merely checking for any other signs of injury. "I apologize for not coming quicker; if we had pinpointed the cry earlier this wouldn't have happened."

It was obvious that these two were nearing their teenage years, but were not that far off in age from Dratini. No matter the age though, they were definitely being sincere towards her.

She had not noticed her sudden quietness until the male had called for her again.

"Hello?"

She simply stared at him, biting her lip as if she were hesitating to speak a mere word.

"It's alright now. We aren't going to hurt you—"When the male saw the scar on her cheek he merely gasped and lightly poked it to see if it caused her any pain, "Eesh… Ember, we nearly got here just in time!"

"Did we?" The male named Ember knelt down near his twin and pet the girl atop of her head, "Hey. It's alright now."

She tensed up when he touched her, but it did not take too long for her to warm up to both of them.

Before they could ask any more questions, Dratini clung onto Ember's torso and held onto it for dear life. It was obvious to the two that she was grateful for their actions, and she wasn't exactly going to travel alone for a while.

"… Come on, Jingels," Ember nodded to his twin, "Let's go clean her up."


End file.
